# Spellbreakers Ep. 175: Walking Tour #2 - London Bridge and the Roman Origins of the British Empire

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/badlands-media-5934327/spellbreakers-ep-175-walking-tour-2-london-bridge-and-the-roman-origins-of-the-british-empire
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/badlands-media-5934327/spellbreakers-ep-175-walking-tour-2-london-bridge-and-the-roman-origins-of-the-british-empire.md
Podcast: [Badlands Media](https://stenobird.com/podcast/badlands-media-5934327)
Published: 2026-08-01T07:15:43+00:00
Episode link: https://badlandsmedia.podbean.com/e/spellbreakers-ep-175-walking-tour-2-london-bridge-and-the-roman-origins-of-the-british-empire/
Audio file: https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/dnwz74a2bi38m4nz/Spellbreakers_ep_1756nj6n.mp3
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Duration seconds: 5262

## Resource

Host Matt Trump continues his "summer abroad" as the self-described Rick Steves of Badlands, picking up the walking tour right where last week's City of London stroll left off. After recapping how a "digital" City of London projects financial power through shipping, insurance, and choke points, he leads you south from Bank Station down King William Street, past the Monument to the Great Fire, the Worshipful Company of Fishmongers, and a glimpse of the Shard and Tower Bridge, all the way to the famously plain London Bridge itself. The payoff is his central thesis: the bridge, not the architecture, is what matters. London began as Roman Londinium, a military garrison built to guard the crossing, which he frames as the birthplace of foreign domination over Britain and a lineage of concentrated power stretching to today. Expect history, geopolitics, wry asides, the three-city model, and a promise to tackle the Normans next week.

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## Transcript

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